About the Author

Robert Pinsky is Poet Laureate of the United States. FSG published The Inferno of Dante in 1994 and The Figured Wheel in 1996. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University and lives in Newton Corner, Massachusetts.

Reviews

"A keenly idiosyncratic account of the place of poetry in our time . . . not only interesting but suspenseful to read." --James Longenbach, The Nation "One of the marvelous things about this book is Pinsky's deep recognition that a poem is successful not because of the poet's ambition or sense of purpose but because of the effect it creates in the reader, and in many readers over time" --Graham Christian, Boston Phoenix